Daily Deep

December 22

“The secret to happiness is right at your feet.”

Christopher McDougall
in book preview Born to Run

The real purpose of running isn’t to win a race.
It’s to test the limits of the human heart.

Bill Bowerman
Track and Field coach; co-founder of Nike Inc

“I would never be on the start line expecting to win anything and I’m always surprised if I do.
It comes from a background of doing something for the love of it and not for any kind of glory.”

Holly Page, Fellrunner, UK

“Running away from your problems doesn’t solve anything,
but sometimes it’s more fun than dealing with them.”

Elise Downing, ran around the coast of Great Britain

“We are not given a good or bad life. We are given a life.
It’s up to us to make it good or bad”

Jacky Hunt-Broersma, bladerunner

The only limitations we face are
the ones we place upon ourselves.

Ray Zahab
adventurer, founder Impossible2Possible Foundation

“Nature is the salve for our souls.
We owe it to everyone who comes after us and ourselves,
to protect what little is left of wild nature …”

Bob Brown
Bob Brown Foundation to protect Australia’s wild and scenic nature

Photo credits Nicole Anderson

Life’s battles don’t always go to the strongest or fastest man,
but sooner or later the man who wins is the fellow who thinks he can.

Steve Prefontaine
American long-distance Olympic runner

‘Why don’t I listen’ is the question to explore.
If we expect to evolve and heal together,
we have to start listening to ourselves, to our own hearts, and to each other.
Or continue to live in violence and apathy.

Andrew Forsthoefel
Walking to Listen: 4,000 Miles Across America, One Story at a Time

We have an economy that tells us it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it.
You can print money to bail out a bank but you can’t print life to bail out a planet.

Paul Hawken
American environmentalist, entrepreneur, author, economist, and activist

If you’re short of breath, it’s not because you aren’t breathing in enough,
it’s because you’re not breathing out enough.

Danny Dreyer
Co-founder of ChiRunning and ChiWalking

If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now.
Don’t spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it.

Priscilla Welch
British retired Olympic marathon runner

It is true that nobody likes the feeling of hitting the wall
but it’s not the end of your adventure, just another chapter in it
and probably one of the most memorable parts of it.

Mark Cooper
ultrarunner

There is mental clarity from the simple act of
putting one foot in front of the other
long after the body has begged you to stop.

Richard Donovan
ultrarunner, race organizer

To follow a trail is to establish a link with the history of man.
It is at once the most primitive and the most civilized of activities.

Lennon Hooper
National Park Trails USA 1973

Pain is your body’s way of telling you to change how you’re moving.

Danny Dreyer
Coach, Author of ChiRunning

A whole healthy lifestyle springs from
just getting out the door.

Meb Keflezighi

If it seems impossible it might be worth doing

Eric Orton
Coach, Author The Cool Impossible

Intrinsically we have a desire to progress and advance.
These records, be it Everest, the four-minute mile, putting a man on the moon,
give us an indication of that advancement.
It is something very fundamental to us as human beings.

David Fletcher
sports psychologist at Loughborough University